Broadcaster and actor, Mikki Osei Berko, popularly known in showbiz circles as Master Richard recalled that his contract with Multimedia Media Group (Adom FM) was terminated abruptly.
According to him, he wasn’t sacked as is being speculated by people who are not familiar with the situation.
“I never accepted I was fired, no I wasn’t sacked at Adom FM, the contract was terminated and no one gave me any reasons for that.”
Interacting with Bola Ray on Starr Chat on Accra based Starr FM, Wednesday, Mickey bemoans that his alleged dismissal was done ignorantly since according to him he delivered as expected but competition in Accra was hard-hitting.
He further noted that though ‘Drive Time Show’ on radio was a sturdy competition in Accra, he upheld Adom FM’s listenership rate to a good pedestal.
Mikki Osei-Berko took over the drive time show on Adom FM after the departure of Abeiku Santana.
The station had tried almost everything to get the show on its feet once again. They had used both in-house presenters and some they recruited for the purpose, but it wasn’t working.
The man who had lit up the TV screens with his roles in Taxi Driver as Master Richard and in Dada Boat as Dada Boat was then in the UK minding his own business and perhaps wanting to come to Ghana. He needed to have a very good and lucrative excuse to do so. Someone at Adom FM thought about Mikki and they offered him the show.
Mikki had been given a way out and he was going to use Ofie Kwanso at Adom FM to re-launch his radio career.
Just like those who hosted the show before him (since Abeiku Santana took a walk) Eddie K, Dr. Prekese and Dr. Asanka, the man who described himself as the “The Humble Lion” when he returned to Ghanaian radio was eventually humbled by the powers that be at Adom FM.
Mikki had been on for just about three months when they thought he was not pulling in the numbers they required and that he wasn’t keeping up with the challenge from Okay FM, Peace FM and others and therefore had to let him go. Jerry Justice then stepped in.
It must have been a very crushing and a terrible experience for Osei-Berko as what he had hoped would be a good passage back to what he loves to do very much was closed in his face in just a quarter of a year of taking it up.
When asked by Bola Ray the reason for his ‘poor’ performance at Adom FM, he said, “at Adom FM I had no production Team so I brought on board some guys to help and I paid them myself.”
According to Mikki this never stopped him from achieving his dream as a radio presenter so he left to Adinkra FM where he hosted the morning show.
“Though Adinkra FM was a new brand and I wasn’t getting the needed support I did lovely because I gained new listeners.”